LEADS A HARD LIFE. 



377 



monly acute ' eye for country/ — by no means a 

 usual accomplisliment even with the professional 

 surveyor. As an old ' agrimensor/ I well know 

 that there is no better trainins^ for the tvro 

 who can afford the time than to begin field-work 

 without instruments : the use of the latter will 

 be learned in a few days, nay, hours ; and even 

 the most experienced prefer, when possible, to go 

 over the ground, and to form a mental sketch 

 before attempting exact topography. His maps 

 and plans were never, I believe, published, in 

 consequence of some difference with the editor, 

 who had delayed printing them. 



During his explorations he led the hardest of 

 lives, and he solved the problem of ' how to live 

 upon half nothing.' ' In the backwoods and 

 jungles,' he says, 'no ceremony or etiquette pro- 

 vokes unnecessary expenditure, whilst the fewer 

 men and material I took with me on my sporting 

 excursions the better sport we always got, and 

 the freer and more independent I was to carry on 

 the chase.' He rose with the freezing dawn, 

 walked in the burning sun all day, breaking his 

 fast upon native bread and wild onions, and he 

 passed the biting nights in the smallest of ' rowtie ' 

 tents, often falling asleep before finishing his food. 

 The latter was of course chiefly game, and he 



